(Updates with spokesman comment in the fifth paragraph.)
By Takahiko Hyuga
March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Junko Nakagawa, Nomura Holdings
Inc.’s first female chief financial officer, will step down
after two years in the post, to be replaced by Shigesuke
Kashiwagi.
Nakagawa, 47, will remain a senior managing director and
take charge of the internal audit group at Japan’s biggest
brokerage, Tokyo-based Nomura said in a statement today. The
appointments will take effect on April 1.
She was named CFO in 2011 under former Chief Executive
Officer Kenichi Watanabe, who resigned in July after regulators
found that some employees gave tips to traders. Kashiwagi, 53,
will take over the task of implementing CEO Koji Nagai’s plan to
reduce $1 billion of costs and sustain a profit recovery as
Japanese financial markets rally.
“The market will be watching whether Nomura can complete
its cost cutting plan and maintain discipline under the new
CFO,” said Masao Muraki, a Tokyo-based analyst at Deutsche Bank
AG. “Investors are also focusing on how Nomura can boost equity
and investment banking business and offset a possible decline in
revenue from fixed income, where it’s been solid.”
Nomura announced the moves today as part of a management
shuffle. It reduced the number of senior managing directors to
71 from 80, Kenji Yamashita, a Tokyo-based spokesman, said by
phone. The firm had 105 staff in the role in June 2011, he said.
Trimmed Payrolls
Nagai has pledged to cut expenses that swelled after the
firm bought Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. operations in 2008.
The investment bank trimmed payrolls last quarter as part of the
reductions. Nomura had 34,098 employees as of Dec. 31, down 717
from three months earlier.
Nakagawa said in January that she expects investment
banking operations to recover this year as Japan’s stock rebound
prompts companies to tap capital markets and make acquisitions.
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 0.3 percent today to the
highest since September 2008.
“We have a very positive view on our pipeline as the stock
market and Japan as a whole are doing well,” Nakagawa said on
Jan. 31. Net income rose 13 percent to 20.1 billion yen ($216
million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, led by brokerage
commissions and trading.
To boost fixed-income and equity businesses, Nomura formed
a 26-member global markets executive committee headed by
division chief Steve Ashley, an internal memo showed on Jan. 29.
Kashiwagi is currently in charge of regional management
support and risk advisory. He has worked in global fixed income
and had stints abroad, including as chief executive officer at a
U.S. unit. He joined Nomura after graduating from Keio
University in 1982.
Nakagawa entered the firm in 1988 after graduating from
Kobe University.
For Related News and Information:
Top banking news: FTOP
Nomura management: 8604 JP MGMT
Women in the news: NI WOMEN
--Editors: Russell Ward, James Gunsalus
To contact the reporter on this story:
Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at +81-3-3201-7498 or
thyuga@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Chitra Somayaji at +852-2977-6486 or
csomayaji@bloomberg.net